Carry A. Nation (1846 – 1911)

Introduction

Carry Nation was a famous leader and activist before women could vote in America. She believed that drunkenness was the cause of many problems in society. Nation fought with fierce and witty words to make her case that people should not drink alcohol or use tobacco. She gained national attention when she started using violence. Though she was beaten and jailed many times for “smashing” saloons, Carry Nation remained opposed to drinking and smoking throughout her life. Her crusade against drinking contributed to the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment.

Early Years

Detail of 1846 Missouri map showing Van Buren County.
The area now known as Cass County was originally organized in 1835 as Van Buren County. It was renamed in 1848 after Lewis Cass, who served as governor of the Michigan Territory and as a U.S. senator representing Michigan. Cass was the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States in 1848.

[SHS Map Collection, 850 M695]
Detail of 1854 Missouri map showing Cass and Vernon counties, previously joined to form Van Buren County.
The area now known as Cass County was originally organized in 1835 as Van Buren County. It was renamed in 1848 after Lewis Cass, who served as governor of the Michigan Territory and as a U.S. senator representing Michigan. Cass was the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States in 1848.

[SHS Map Collection, 850 T361n2]

Carrie Amelia Moore was born on November 25, 1846, in Garrard County, Kentucky. Her parents were
George MooreGeorge Moore (1811? – 1883).
Nation remembered her father as her “angel on earth.”

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and
Mary Campbell MooreMary James Campbell Moore (1825 – 1893).
Nation’s mother, Mary Moore, supposedly suffered from mental illness. In this photograph, she is shown with her daughters Edna (left) and Carrie (right). Nation had two older half brothers, three younger brothers and two younger sisters.

[SHS 028798]. Her father wanted to spell her name “Carry,” but as a child she was “Carrie.” The Moore family lived on a large farm where Carrie grew up with several siblings and spent many hours with the family’s slaves. All her life she was comfortable with people of various races.

In 1854, with civil war on the horizon, Carrie’s father moved the family to High Grove Farm near Belton in Cass County, Missouri. Rather than finding peace, Carrie’s family found people divided over political issues. In 1862 the Moores moved again, this time to Texas.

State Normal SchoolCarrie Gloyd attended the State Normal School in Warrensburg, Missouri, to earn a teaching certificate.

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The next year, the family returned to their farm in Missouri, but the Civil War

The Civil War was a military conflict that began on April 12, 1861, when Southern forces fired on Fort Sumter outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Several Southern states had seceded from the United States (also known as the Union) and formed the Confederate States of America (also referred to as the Confederacy) out of fear that the United States' newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, would not allow the expansion of slavery into new western states. Battles and skirmishes were fought throughout the country by Union and Confederate forces. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. As other Confederate forces heard the news of Lee's surrender, they surrendered as well and the war was soon over. Over half a million men were killed or wounded in the war. Thousands of former slaves gained their freedom. After the war, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were passed prohibiting slavery, providing equal protection for all citizens, and barring federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote due to their race, color, or status as a former slave.

Union is the term used to identify the United States and its government during the Civil War.

commanders ordered everyone out of parts of the Kansas-Missouri border, including Cass County. The Moores moved to Kansas City, and Carrie learned the brutal side of battle when she traveled with another woman to nurse soldiers after a raid in Independence, Missouri.

A Difficult Start

After the war, the Moores returned to their farm. Carrie, now twenty-one, married Charles GloydCharles Gloyd

[Courtesy of the Fort Bend Museum Association, Richmond TX, Portal to Texas History] on November 21, 1867. Gloyd, once a boarder at the Moore’s house, was a young physician who had fought for the Union. Carrie did not realize that Gloyd, whom she loved dearly, had a severe drinking problem. Soon Carrie became pregnant, and it was clear that Gloyd could not support her because of his excessive drinking. Heartbroken, Carrie returned to her family home.

Carrie Gloyd became a teacherEngraving of a nineteenth-century female schoolteacher. Carrie Gloyd taught school for only a few years while her mother–in–law, Mrs. Gloyd, cared for her daughter, Charlien. Carrie Gloyd supposedly lost her teaching position in Holden unfairly. According to her memoirs, the superintendent of schools dismissed her on a minor issue in order to hire his niece.

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When her only child was born on September 27, 1868, Carrie named her
CharlienCharlien Clara Annie Gloyd McNabbSeptember 27, 1868 – June 10, 1929)

[Courtesy of the Fort Bend Museum Association, Richmond TX, Portal to Texas History] after her husband. Only six months later, Charles Gloyd died. Carrie sold land her father had given her as well as her husband’s books and medical equipment and built a small house in Holden, Missouri. There she lived with her child and mother–in–law. From May 1871 to July 1872 Carrie Gloyd attended school to earn a teaching certificate at the Normal Institute in Warrensburg, Missouri. She taught in Holden for four years.

A New Life

Carrie NationThis portrait of Carrie Nation was taken soon after her marriage to David Nation on December 30, 1874.

David Nation was a newspaper editor, a lawyer, and a minister. He had fought for the Union in the Civil War. In Medicine Lodge, Kansas, Carrie Nation would sometimes interrupt his sermons by correcting the things he said. Sometimes she would announce that the service was over and everyone would have to leave.

An obituary for David Nation from The Barber County Index can be found at RootsWeb.com.

[Kansas State Historical Society] a widower with children who was nineteen years older than she. David Nation was a journalist for a Warrensburg newspaper. He was also a lawyer and preacher. Together, they lived with their children in Warrensburg for a few years. Then they moved to Texas in 1877. While her husband practiced law, Carrie Nation managed a hotel in Columbia and then bought and ran one in Richmond, Texas, for ten years. She was a deeply religious person and started having visions and dreams during this period.

Mother Nation

Medicine Lodge homeThe Nation home in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Carrie Nation began her campaign to outlaw the sale of alcohol in this Kansas town.

[Kansas State Historical Society]

In 1889 Nation’s husband became a preacher, and they moved to Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Here she began a career of charity and religious work and became known as “Mother Nation.” She took a deep interest in helping unfortunate people, especially women and children, and became known for her generosity. Nation organized a chapter of the
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

A band of WCTU crusaders returning from a raid on a saloon or “joint”.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union WCTU is a national voluntary organization founded in 1874 by women who were concerned about the problems alcohol was causing in their families and communities. Based on the writing of Xenophon, a Greek philosopher, the Union defined temperance as "moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful." The WCTU of Missouri was organized in 1882.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, WCTU’s chief goal, or mission, was to outlaw the selling of alcohol. The organization held marches and rallies in several states. Besides saloons, their targets were men’s clubs like the Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles, Lions, Masons and others. Women could not enter these private clubs to search for their husbands if they were missing.

Members of the WCTU had been working for Prohibition, an amendment to the Constitution to make the sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, for many years before Nation became famous for smashing saloons with her hatchet.

[SHS 025588-3] Four women chopping liquor barrels with axes.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union WCTU is a national voluntary organization founded in 1874 by women who were concerned about the problems alcohol was causing in their families and communities. Based on the writing of Xenophon, a Greek philosopher, the Union defined temperance as "moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful." The WCTU of Missouri was organized in 1882.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, WCTU’s chief goal, or mission, was to outlaw the selling of alcohol. The organization held marches and rallies in several states. Besides saloons, their targets were men’s clubs like the Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles, Lions, Masons and others. Women could not enter these private clubs to search for their husbands if they were missing.

Members of the WCTU had been working for Prohibition, an amendment to the Constitution to make the sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, for many years before Nation became famous for smashing saloons with her hatchet.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union WCTU is a national voluntary organization founded in 1874 by women who were concerned about the problems alcohol was causing in their families and communities. Based on the writing of Xenophon, a Greek philosopher, the Union defined temperance as "moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful." The WCTU of Missouri was organized in 1882.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, WCTU’s chief goal, or mission, was to outlaw the selling of alcohol. The organization held marches and rallies in several states. Besides saloons, their targets were men’s clubs like the Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles, Lions, Masons and others. Women could not enter these private clubs to search for their husbands if they were missing.

Members of the WCTU had been working for Prohibition, an amendment to the Constitution to make the sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, for many years before Nation became famous for smashing saloons with her hatchet.

[SHS 1993-0001(detail)] The Missouri WCTU met in Springfield in 1914.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union WCTU is a national voluntary organization founded in 1874 by women who were concerned about the problems alcohol was causing in their families and communities. Based on the writing of Xenophon, a Greek philosopher, the Union defined temperance as "moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful." The WCTU of Missouri was organized in 1882.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, WCTU’s chief goal, or mission, was to outlaw the selling of alcohol. The organization held marches and rallies in several states. Besides saloons, their targets were men’s clubs like the Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles, Lions, Masons and others. Women could not enter these private clubs to search for their husbands if they were missing.

Members of the WCTU had been working for Prohibition, an amendment to the Constitution to make the sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, for many years before Nation became famous for smashing saloons with her hatchet.

[SHS 1993-0001-2]

(WCTU). The WCTU had helped pass a Kansas law against selling alcohol. In Missouri, each county could decide to be wet or dry.

Missouri's dry counties (in white)The progress of Prohibition in Missouri. Three maps showing wet and dry counties in Missouri in 1906, 1910, and 1914. A wet county allowed the sale of alcohol; a dry county did not.

Prohibition passed in a few states as early as 1906 but never became law in Missouri. Counties adopted Prohibition one by one, and these maps show “wet” counties as black and “dry” counties as white. By 1910, a year before Carry Nation died, most counties were dry. By September 1914, there were enough dry counties to declare Missouri a dry state.

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Nation also tried to help prisoners in the jail. She came to believe that alcohol had caused the troubles of the inmates. Illegal bars and men's clubs in Kansas still served liquor. Nation and another member of the WCTU decided to get rid of the bars by standing outside them, praying loudly and singing hymns. Soon, the bars in Medicine Lodge were closed.

Interior of Carey Hotel Bar in Wichita, Kansas. It was one of the saloons, often called "joints," attacked by Nation.

For a brief description of the incident at the Carey Hotel bar, see an article from the Barber County Index dated January 15, 1902, at Rootsweb.com.

[Kansas State Historical Society]
Nation, standing next to post, with a crowd outside a bar or “joint” that she and her followers smashed in Kansas

Even though the laws of Kansas said that alcohol couldn’t be sold except for medical purposes, there were bars, or “joints,” all over the state. In the “joints,” men could drink without worrying about being discovered because women could not go inside. The Kansas City Star reported Nation telling the crowd, “Smash. Smash. Praise God, Women. Come on. Smash the Windows.”

[Kansas State Historical Society]

In 1900 Nation believed that God told her to go to Kiowa, Kansas, and close the bars there. Rather than use hymns and prayer, however, Nation threw bricks. She continued her destructive tactics in Wichita, Kansas. In Topeka in 1901, someone handed her a hatchet.

Nation was jailed several times for disturbing the peace and destroying private property. She included this photograph in her autobiography and provided the following text to accompany it: “Just before I left Wichita jail a photographer came to my cell and asked to take my picture. Here it is in the position of kneeling, reading my bible, which was my usual attitude.”

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Nation walking with the sheriff of Enterprise, Kansas.

Nation, shown here with the sheriff of Enterprise, Kansas, said that she was trying to get police and sheriffs to do their jobs. After all, it was illegal to sell liquor in Kansas. As a woman, however, she had little power to make men do anything.

Nation’s method had three parts: First, she spoke on the streets or in a hall and gathered a crowd. It did not worry her if the men in the crowd laughed at her. This illustration shows Nation speaking on a street in Topeka, Kansas.

[Kansas State Historical Society] Second, after Nation had some support from the people, she would speak to lawmakers like Governor William Stanley of Kansas as shown in this illustration. Nation asked him to enforce the laws of the state and explained that alcohol was ruining lives and families.

[Kansas State Historical Society]Third, if Nation could not get help from the lawmakers, she brought her followers into a “joint,” and the women attacked it with rocks, bricks, and hatchets. In this illustration, they are in the Senate Saloon, a fine Topeka establishment, smashing mirrors and doing a lot of damage.

[Kansas State Historical Society]

became violent, people noticed. The Kansas WCTU presented her with a gold medallion inscribed, “To the Bravest Woman in Kansas.” The crowds of followers grew, but her marriage fell apart. By November 1901, she was divorced. Again alone, Nation sold little pewter hatchets to raise money and took on speaking engagements. She was beaten and jailed many times. After one “smashing,” Nick Chiles, a black politician and bar owner, bailed her out of jail. He also published her first newspaper, The Smasher's Mail.

[Kansas State Historical Society]
Nation published The Hatchet at this location.

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The Hatchet was Nation’s second attempt at starting a regular magazine. It contained her writings, news from saloon fighters, and letters from supporters throughout the United States. Besides writing about the evils of liquor, Nation wrote articles suggesting that women should get the vote, articles that gave advice about rearing children, and articles about the joys of a happy home.

Final Years of Fury

Nation’s autobiographyThe cover of the original opera The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, 1904 edition

There are three editions of Nation’s autobiography. The first edition, shown above, was published in 1904.

[SHS F508.1 N213]

In 1903 Carrie Nation officially changed her name to “Carry,” saying it meant "“Carry A Nation for Prohibition

The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, and took effect on January 17, 1920. It was difficult for the government to enforce Prohibition, especially when criminals began making and selling alcohol in violation of the law. Due to the amendment's unpopularity, a rise in crime, and the difficulty of enforcement, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment.

.” When her autobiography was published, she made enough money to buy a house in Kansas City, Kansas, to shelter the wives and mothers of drunkards. Later, a lecture tour took her to Great Britain.

Many people made fun of Carry Nation. A group of college students lured her to campus by pretending to support her, and used her visit to put her down. Instead of becoming angry, she suggested that women should have the power to change things through the democratic process of
voting:

The suffragist cause.

[SHS 026218]The suffragist cause.

Carry Nation was a suffragist. During her lifetime, women were not allowed to vote. She believed strongly that if she could vote, she would not need to use violence to make her voice heard. Like the prohibitionists, suffragists held parades to gather support for their cause. This suffrage parade in Norborne, Missouri, features a marching band and a group of future voters.

[SHS 021761]

“The loving moral influence of mothers must be put in the ballot box.”

The grave of Carry A. Nation is in Belton, Missouri, next to the grave of her mother. Her tombstone is inscribed, “Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition. She Hath Done What She Could.”

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Exhausted and ill, Carry Nation retired to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and bought a
houseWhen she died, Nation left homes in Kansas and Arkansas to shelter the families of drunkards. They were called Homes for Drunkards’ Wives and Children.

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large enough for her and several women who had lost their homes because of alcoholic husbands. She collapsed while giving a lecture in Eureka Springs in January 1911 and died on June 2, 1911, at the age of 64. She is buried beside her mother in Belton, Missouri.

Carry Nation’s Legacy

Carry Nation’s work paved the way for two amendments to the United States Constitution. The
Eighteenth Amendment

In 1919, the U.S. Constitution was amended to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Governor Frederick Gardner ratified, or approved, the National Prohibition Act for the state of Missouri on January 16, 1919, as supporters looked on. The act went into effect on January 29, 1919, one year after a majority of states approved the amendment."

[SHS 028816]In 1919, the U.S. Constitution was amended to prohibit the sale of alcohol. All over the state and the nation, communities celebrated with “Dry Parades” like this one in Sedalia, Missouri.

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, passed in 1919, prohibited the sale of alcohol, and the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, allowed women to vote. In 1933 Prohibition ended with another constitutional amendment.

Text and research by Margot Ford McMillen and Carlynn Trout

Meets Show-Me Standards SS: 2, 6, 7; 4th grade GLE 2a.A.

References and Resources

For more information about Carry A. Nation's life and career, see the following resources:

Society Resources

The following is a selected list of books, articles, and manuscripts about Carry A. Nation in the research centers of The State Historical Society of Missouri. The Society’s call numbers follow the citations in brackets. All links will open in a new tab.

The Missouri Collection (C3982)
A collection combining miscellaneous small acquisitions related to Missouri places, individuals, organizations, and events. Includes a folder on the Missouri Anti-Saloon League.

Upton, Lucile Morris, Papers, 1823-1986 (C3869)
The personal and professional papers of a Springfield, Missouri, journalist and writer are especially strong in the history of Springfield and the Ozarks region and in Ozark folklore. Information about Carry Nation is included in several files, including a photograph of her giving a speech in Excelsior Springs.

This famous portrait photograph of Carry A. Nation with a hatchet in one hand and a Bible in the other was taken in 1901 when she was fifty-five years old. She officially changed her name, spelled “Carrie” in her younger years, to “Carry” when she was an adult. She told people her name, “Carry A. Nation,” meant “Carry A Nation to Prohibition.” She was unusually tall and usually wore simple black clothing.